Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

“woke” is the new caravan.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Second rate reporter says what?

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Come on, man.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

You are here: Home / Sports / Paging Richard Mayhew

Paging Richard Mayhew

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What in the actual holy hell is this nonsense:

How was that a yellow?

 

Richard Mayhew: The ref fucked up.. that is why it is a yellow.  The ref thought he saw a  trip where the point of contact was leg on leg.  That is what I saw in the first 5 seconds of the clip.  I did not see the point of contact as studs on shin until the slow motion replay.  The fouling player quickly flashed his spikes and then got back to an almost normal playing position.  If the ref was not in perfect position for that particular point of contact, he sees a cheap shot trip not an ankle breaker assault.

Reader Interactions

87Comments

  4. 4.

    Mnemosyne

    Open-ish thread?

    Local event alert for history nerds: the Huntington is doing a lecture tonight at 7:30 pm called “Finding A Cure At The British Spa” (that’s as “taking the waters at Bath,” not a modern spa).

    Non-local history nerds should be able to find it on iTunes U in a couple of weeks, along with many other cool lectures from the Huntington (aka Huntington Library and Gardens).

  10. 10.

    Alain the site fixer

    @John Cole: Blue good or NEEDS MORE BLUE? Since I am not in blue, no others Front Pagers are – it’s just you, boss.

  13. 13.

    Mike J

    @raven: We never get Formula 1 threads, despite Martin and trying to convert other threads. Saturday night at 10:30 PDT.

    Thank god the teams finally forced F1 to go back to a sane qualifying format.

  14. 14.

    Adam L Silverman

    @John Cole: Its snake creeps down from the Yang tai chi martial set. The bottom of the attackers foot goes in just below the knee, severing the patella from the ligaments and then you scrape down the shin breaking the bones of the lower leg. You finish by driving your heel into the top of the foot where it meets the front of the ankle, which separates the ligaments there and breaks the bones in the top of the foot. At that point you’re done because your opponent can’t stand up and is most likely bleeding out internally. Also, he or she is in a lot of pain!

  15. 15.

    PigInZen

    Yeah, that was just an awkward collision but no foul. I’m with you on this one, John.

  19. 19.

    OldDave

    @Mike J:

    Thank god the teams finally forced F1 to go back to a sane qualifying format.

    Did they? Praise the maker. I’ll have to head over to James Allen on F1 to see what’s been going on.

  20. 20.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Punchy: they’re called martial arts for a reason.

    More seriously: the vast majority of even experienced practitioners of martial arts that I know pay far to little time actually thinking through what the actual effects are of what we’re learning/teaching. Aikido and tai chi may be done for non-martial purposes these days, but to properly understand how to do them to receive the non-martial benefits, you have to understand what the movements and techniques were originally intended for.

  21. 21.

    Gentex

    He came in recklessly and crushed his ankle. A yellow seems perfectly reasonable to me.

  22. 22.

    Mike J

    @OldDave: They were threatening to give the teams a choice between the new bad system and a weird aggregate time system that people hated even more. I don’t know what caused them to back down, but I the teams were not happy at all.

  24. 24.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Aikido and tai chi may be done for non-martial purposes these days, but to properly understand how to do them to receive the non-martial benefits, you have to understand what the movements and techniques were originally intended for.

    Which most people don’t and may be surprised that the original intentions were not kind, or calming, or for exercise. It’s like history isn’t even interesting to people.

  25. 25.

    Adam L Silverman

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I’m honestly far more interested in the original purposes behind what we’re doing. Not to do them on people, but because its in line with what I do professionally. When I teach military personnel aikido, I try to emphasize the original intention as we work through techniques.

  29. 29.

    Just One More Canuck

    @Mike J: I’m with you too – in spite of the disastrous qualifying systems the used, the first two races were pretty interesting. Bernie (Ecclestone) needs to go

  30. 30.

    lamh36

    speaking of sports, I’m watching the Jackie Robinson doc on PBS, I’m def already learning a bit more than I already knew, like the fact that Jackie Robinson’s brother was an Olympic medalist along with Jesse Owens? In fact he was 2nd to Owens in the 200

  31. 31.

    Gentex

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    Hmmmm . . . Perhaps. I took “How was that a yellow?” To mean he didn’t think it even rose to that level. Your interpretation could be correct though.

    IMO, a red would have been a bit much, because it was reckless, but not obviously with the intent to injure.

  32. 32.

    TheMightyTrowel

    @John Cole: he says in a blue funk. I am thoroughly enjoying the slip slide through the HEX-code rainbow that is today’s Balloon Juice comments thread experience…

  33. 33.

    Mnemosyne

    So it looks like my biopsy (boobie) should be tomorrow. Unless, of course, the doctor at Bob’s House of Discount Mammography decides it isn’t necessary after all, at which point I run amok with a size 6 knitting needle. (Don’t laugh, these Hiya Hiya needles are metal and pointy.)

    Seriously, this whole goddamned process has been a farce, so I’m hoping for the icing on the cake to be that all of this angst and time was expended for absolutely nothing. I really don’t want to deal with this clown show of a medical group if it is something serious (very unlikely, but a nonzero chance).

  34. 34.

    Temporarily Max McGee (Soon Enough to Be Andy K Again)

    @John Cole:

    He played the ball and got the man. No clear intent to injure. No red card. Yellow and a stern warning from the ref.

    You’d have hated my high school team. Almost everyone outside of us did. But we played with the contact that the big guys did, when most high school parents didn’t know that footie can be played as a contact sport in the same way as is basketball i the low post. Best way to get an opponent carded back then was to grab some jersey from time to time, or make numerous tugs at his shorts.

  35. 35.

    scav

    @Mnemosyne: i think you and Adam L S should coordinate a bit with the martial knitting efforts. I’d sign up. Have a decent set, double-pointed, various sizes and the circulars could be multipurpose. (To match local standards, they may have to be rusty, which might post a bit of a problem . . . ) and bamboo for practice should already be readily available!

  38. 38.

    MomSense

    @Mnemosyne:

    Fingers crossed and sending good results your way.

    Kid is playing some kind of video game and stopped to have a snack. Here is a sample of my night set to the tune of some computerized video game noise “music”.

    Me: What’s on your pants?
    Kid: I spilled chocolate ice cream.
    Me: We have chocolate ice cream?
    Kid: Not anymore.

  39. 39.

    Mnemosyne

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    I managed not to go ballistic on the phone when the appointment lady said that their radiologist needed to do his own ultrasound and decide if I really needed the biopsy. She did at least recognize my tone of voice and quickly reassured me that she had scheduled enough time to do the biopsy on the spot. It’s pretty fucking ridiculous, though.

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne

    @MomSense:

    I’m hoping my #HamilTome will arrive at work before I have to leave for the appointment so I can at least sulk at home with it afterwards. But sometimes the post office lets me down.

  43. 43.

    gogol's wife

    @Mnemosyne:

    Is it due to arrive tomorrow? I ordered one too.

    I guess it will come right before the Shirley Temple stamps come out. (I realize I’m the only ST fan around here, though.)

  47. 47.

    Mnemosyne

    @gogol’s wife:

    Yes, tomorrow! It’s already in transit, but since I had it sent to work, there is sometimes a weird lag for post office packages.

    @MomSense:

    One of the reasons I’m getting a bad vibe from this new place is that the first one gave me a page of pre-biopsy instructions and advised me to take the day off work, and this one was like, “Eh, just stop taking aspirin a few days ahead. Sure, you can go right back to work as soon as we’re done.” So either the first place is alarmist or the second place is overly casual.

  48. 48.

    Mnemosyne

    So now I’m wandering away for my “Finding a Cure at the British Spa” lecture. See all y’all later.

  51. 51.

    MomSense

    @Mnemosyne:

    I have a bleeding disorder so my experience is not typical. I had to go in early to have special medication to prevent bleeding complications. I felt like crap afterwards because the medication makes me nauseous and gives me a headache. The biopsy part was much easier.
    It’s probably better to be kind to yourself and take the day off to just rest.

  52. 52.

    scav

    @Omnes Omnibus: Hence the qualification British Spa rather than “Finding A Cure At Spa” which would involve a passport and rather more Schnitzel. ETA, Make that waffles, I was wandering off with Baden Baden for the foodstuffs.

  56. 56.

    Heliopause

    [sigh] What’s this continent coming to? First we get Major League Wussie Baseball outlawing double play breakups. Then the National Pussy Football League adopts the “Odell Beckham Rule”. The national sport of Canada is getting spooked by lawsuits so they sometimes enforce the rules on the books now. And now the “sport” of association football, with their color coded participation ribbons, threatens to emasculate us all.

    Praise Jesus, but you know you’ve watched a North American sporting event when somebody has been carted off on a stretcher. As God intended. Fuck all these non-hetero-cis-normative fake sports.

  60. 60.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    I’ll be thinking of you and hoping that all the stupid bureaucratic crap is the most challenging thing you have to deal with. Be kind to yourself.

  64. 64.

    cmorenc

    @John Cole:

    What in the actual holy hell is this nonsense:

    As a competitive-level soccer referee myself (though not MLS level), that should have been a clear red-card foul (send-off) for LA’s Nigel De Jong – he tackled studs-up directly into an opponent – VERY dangerous, and therefore even though De Jong did technically touch the ball first, there was no way to avoid the studs carrying through the ball into his opponent. The referee let De Jong off much too light with only a yellow card, and it’s highly likely the referee will undergo harsh scrutiny from the PRO referee (MLS professional referee) assessors who evaluate the refs in every game. A perfect illustration of the fallacy of assuming a player who gets to the ball first thereby cannot commit a foul if there is contact with the opponent.

    De Jong was also the perp in another famous studs-up tackling foul incident in the 2010 World Cup final (Netherlands vs Spain) in which he tackled his foot cleats-up into a Spanish opponent’s chest, and only got a yellow card from referee Howard Webb – the rest of the world referee community is of the unanimous opinion that Web’s failure to give De Jong a red card for that incident (even though it was in the opening minutes of the game) was an egregious error for what is a textbook red-card foul.

  65. 65.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Of course it should have been a straight red, and De Jong has a reputation — though weirdly, one that doesn’t translate into many actual red cards. He may well have a reality-distortion field that operates on referees, shaping his tackles to make them look less filthy than they actually are. You’ll note that Lalas doesn’t say ‘red card’ in live commentary, and only winces on the replay, when the agricultural horror of that tackle becomes clear.

  67. 67.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @Mnemosyne: oh, that’s interesting, because a lot of doctors in the 1700s got very rich from Bath, encouraging the affluent mercantile middle-classes to GTFO of London and do the rest cure thing. One of the first eras where you had people rich enough to do medical things that weren’t necessarily needed but were wanted.

    All the best for tomorrow.

  68. 68.

    dollared

    @cmorenc: Agreed, even though I’m only a ref when the paid ref doesn’t show up. And this gets back to another question I’ve been asking: why does US soccer and English soccer suck? Maybe because the absolute willingness of defensive players to risk injuring the highest skilled players – without consequence – results in so much attrition that there are no top flight midfielders and forwards by age 20? And of course, changes the game so there is no ability to do small ball in and near the box.

  70. 70.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @dollared: Interesting question. As a rugby player, I adjusted my play to the ref’s strictness. OTOH, i was always willing to collar tackle if it stopped a try. I also didn’t bitch if it happened to me.

  73. 73.

    Mnemosyne

    @pseudonymous in nc:

    The thread may be dead, but this professor’s book is actually going to be about the early modern period slightly before the Georgian glory days of the spa cities, when treatments were free as long as you could walk, ride, or drag yourself there, and they refused to enforce the vagrancy laws. She is still trying to figure out exactly why those spa areas seemed to have a sense of public health in that time period, but they lost it in the Georgian period.

  75. 75.

    Temporarily Max McGee (Soon Enough to Be Andy K Again)

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Remember a guy named Boularouz (sp?), deJong’s teammate on the Dutch national team in 2010 and 2012? His nickname was The Cannibal. How about Italian and AC Milan midfielder Guiseppe Gatusso? Those guys makke the Prem look like a Merchant-Ivory production.

  83. 83.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @Mnemosyne: that is right in my academic wheelhouse. I did some work on George Cheyne, who was one of the first celebrity doctors to attract an affluent clientele to Bath, but I don’t really have any solid knowledge of the 17th century context before that commercialisation, and would be interested to know about it, so I’ll make a note to find the lecture when it shows up online.

  84. 84.

    West of the Cascades

    @John Cole: Timbers fans worldwide agree with you, Cole. Nigel deJong is the dirtiest player in soccer, charming that he plays in MLS now. At least a three-game suspension coming up.

  85. 85.

    Richard Mayhew

    @dollared: This is only going to get worse with the next round of rule changes. Going to be almost impossible to give a Red for DOGSO in the box (by the new rule, it will be impossible, but there is wiggle room for Serious Foul Play/Violent Conduct reds to act as if they are DOGSOs)

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